http://www.humanswhogrowfood.com/

Humans Who Grow Food, Toronto, ON (2025)

12/17/2025

Meet Nur Hazirah Idris from Malaysia 🇲🇾

“I am a home food grower based in Marang, Terengganu, on the east coast of Malaysia, a place known for its beautiful beaches, slow and peaceful lifestyle, and often called the happiest state in Malaysia.

I am an introvert who loves reading, taking photos, and spending time in my garden, because that is the only place where my mind becomes quiet.

I grow food in a small garden behind my house, using raised beds and a layout that also leaves space for my children to play. My gardening journey started modestly, just a tiny garden beside my house, using recycled materials as planting containers. With time and a little rezeki, I was able to purchase the land behind my home and build proper raised beds. What began as a practical hobby slowly turned into a personal sanctuary for healing and self therapy.

My inspiration comes from childhood. I grew up watching my grandfather, mother, and father plant, harvest, and cook using fresh produce from our backyard. Those early memories shaped my love for gardening and home grown food.

I mainly grow vegetables, herbs, and kitchen essentials that my family eats daily. I care deeply about food security, quality, and giving the best to my children, so growing my own produce lets me control what goes into our plates.

For soil and pest management, I focus on healthy soil first. I check the soil condition after every harvest, refresh it, and add compost that I make myself. I also use organic pest control and companion planting, including marigold, basil, lemongrass, and local herbs.

I source most of my seeds from local suppliers, but I also save seeds from my own garden to share with close family members.

Living close to the beach means hot weather is my biggest challenge. I have to be disciplined with self watering twice a day, and the tropical weather can be unpredictable. Still, the rewards far outweigh the hurdles , the peace, the therapy, and the joy of feeding my family with something grown by my own hands.

Besides growing food, I also enjoy sharing gardening tips, basic knowledge, and little lessons I’ve learned with my followers on Instagram, hoping they can benefit, start small, and feel inspired.

If I could share one message with the community, it would be this,
You don’t need a big space or perfect tools to grow food. Start small, use what you already have, and let your garden grow together with you”.

Instagram:

12/17/2025

Meet Justin from Sydney, Australia 🇦🇺

“I am a married 38 year old father of two beautiful little girls. I enjoy keeping fit via crossfit & growing fresh organic veggies to share with friends & family. I’m also a registered beekeeper who’s slowly building a little beekeeping business.

I got inspired to garden & grow food by my mum who is a really good gardener & I guess I just enjoyed being able to grow something & eat it from a young age.

I grow food because it is important for me to know exactly how my food is produced & that it is not laden with chemicals. Another reason is that growing food or gardening in general is quite relaxing & a great way to clear the mind.

I live on the outskirts of Sydney in a semi rural town called Camden. Our climate has temperatures ranging from -5 degree Celsius in winter to scorching 50 degrees in summer. My growing space is around 30 square meter in total , which isn't a lot but it’s enough for now.

Typically over the colder months I grow a mix of brassicas, peas & carrots as well as salad greens. In the warmer months I like to grow a variety of tomatoes, pumpkins, corn & beans . My bees also definitely keep me busy this time of the year.

In the past 3-4 years I’ve discovered the amazing benefits of growing green manure crops & plant them late summer each year. My soil looks amazing & is full of beneficial microbes that help me grow awesome organic vegetables.

I have only recently started saving my seeds as I have been reading more & more about the benefits of selecting seeds from your best veggies & acclimatization.

The biggest reward for me is introducing my daughter Amelia to the joys of homegrown fresh veggies. She is obsessed with strawberries and peas & doesn’t mind pinching my cherry tomatoes either.

I have been a volunteer at garden now for roughly 10 years & I love sharing my knowledge with other gardeners & visitors to the garden.

Don’t be afraid of failure, gardening is all about trial and error and even now after 30+ years of gardening I still get it wrong from time to time; some of the best lessons I’ve learnt in the garden have come from my failures.”

12/17/2025

“To support pollination, we added four beehives, watching in awe as these tiny workers became essential partners in our project”.

New story alert ‼️
Link in comments section

12/17/2025

A garden born in lockdown. My name is Flori and this is our story.

IN 2020, when the world slowed down during the COVID lockdown, our family decided not to stand still. I proposed an idea to my husband and our two children—who were 9 and 11 at the time—that would change our lives: turning our 3 acres of land into a vegetable garden and orchard.
What began as a simple plan quickly became a true family project. It wasn’t just about growing food; it was about growing together. We wanted to teach our children the value of family time, teamwork, hard work, and—most importantly—patience. A lot of patience.

I have always been curious and deeply in love with nature and her beauty. Born in Romania and now living in Rhode Island, USA, I carry with me a strong respect for the land and traditional ways of growing food. That love guided every decision we made. I made a conscious effort to use heirloom vegetable plants, purchasing seeds and seedlings from other growers to preserve diversity, flavor, and history while supporting small farms and local growers.

Our land challenged us from the beginning. The soil was rocky and unforgiving, but we didn’t give up. With the help of a small tractor, we dug 70 large holes and planted trees of all kinds—apple, pear, cherry, peach, plum, quince, and apricot. We planted more than 100 bushes of blueberries, along with grapes, blackberries, raspberries and strawberries. Each tree and bush felt like a promise to the future.

As the garden grew, so did our vision. We added medicinal and ornamental plants throughout the land—lavender, rosemary, thyme, sage, calendula, echinacea, chamomile, and other healing herbs that brought beauty, fragrance, and purpose. These plants taught our children that nature doesn’t just feed us; it can also heal and restore us. Ornamental flowers added color and life, attracting butterflies and beneficial insects, turning our land into a living ecosystem.

To support pollination, we added four beehives, watching in awe as these tiny workers became essential partners in our project. We created a vegetable garden enriched with organic compost made from our chicken's manure, kitchen scraps, leaves, and wood chips. To bring the soil fully to life, we added earthworms collected from my sister-in-law’s horse compost, accelerating the breakdown of organic matter and making nutrients more available to our plants.

Now, five years later, we can truly see the results of our labor. What once was rocky land has become a thriving oasis of life—full of colors, aromas, and rich earthy smells. Fruit trees, vegetables, medicinal herbs, and ornamental flowers grow side by side in harmony.

We share the food and herbs we grow with friends and family, spreading abundance beyond our land. This garden is more than an orchard or a vegetable patch—it is a living lesson in patience, resilience, and connection. It reminds us that when a family works together, honors nature, and stays curious, even during uncertain times, something truly beautiful can grow.

12/16/2025

Meet Mhel from the Philippines 🇵🇭

“We don't worry about what to cook and eat every day with all these plants in our backyard! Having a garden not only helps you save money that would have been spent on food, but it can also generate extra income for future savings.

When you plant, you will harvest, and it's a deeply fulfilling feeling to know that you are eating what you planted and harvested. Gardening can be sometimes tiring, but it's a satisfying kind of tiredness that clears your mind.

Being in the garden allows you to appreciate everything around you - the plants, animals, and insects. Gardening also has numerous benefits, including increased productivity and better health, thanks to the opportunity to soak up sunlight, get some exercise, and relax your mind and body.

If you have the space, please consider starting your own garden”.

12/16/2025

Meet Ravneet Kaur from Ludhiana, Punjab, India 🇮🇳

“I’m a shy and a quiet person, and you’ll usually find me in my garden, watering my plants, or doing something or the other in the garden. I also like to read, and watch Netflix in my free time. I also love to arrange flowers which I grow in my garden.

I once saw a lady gardener pull out carrots from soil, I was on a hunt for organic carrots for my dad that day. I also started growing wheatgrass for my dad, my best moments during my dad’s stressful cancer journey, was seeing wheatgrass grow…and it was during that time that I learnt that the food available in the market was heavily sprayed with chemicals.

I obviously can’t grow everything in my rooftop garden but I enjoy the whole process of growing everything from seeds, it’s extremely satisfying and healing too.

Companion planting is usually what I do to minimize pest attacks. I use bioenzymes like citrus, neem, garlic for pest management. If the pest attack is really bad, i usually prune the plant. I also use turmeric or cinnamon powder to help with certain pest attacks.

It gets extremely hot here in summers, and maintaining a garden in the peak of Indian summers is really tough. Plus carrying sacks of compost, soil etc on the 3rd floor is difficult.

The fruits that I tasted for the first time from my garden like a fig and a mulberry were my greatest rewards. Gardening also keeps anxiety or stress at bay. It’s a win win situation. Also messages from my community when they grow something makes me really happy.

There’s no green thumb or brown thumb, we can all grow plants, once we’ve decided to grow some!! My page is just to show everyone that if I can grow food in containers, so can you!”

features stories of home gardeners, farmers and community gardens across borders and cultures.

12/16/2025

Meet Claudia .mullertv from Itajai, Santa Catarina, Brazil

“My parents had a farm & I always enjoyed being in contact with nature. However, I lived in an apartment for 18 years during my studies. When I got married, I told my husband that I wanted a house with a big garden & he agreed. I sold a car & built my gardens.

Gardening & growing food is the best therapy of life. I have a degree in journalism & I used to live a busy life working in 4 companies at the same time. I left my job to take care of my garden & my animals. I live lighter, healthier & happier.

I have 500 square meters of land at home & a 50,000 square meters site that I am reforesting alone. I grow absolutely everything that I can. I love trying new seeds & getting to know new foods.

The greater the variety & mix of plants, the healthier a garden is. I plant everything together & mixed. I love it & it works. I have practically no pests in the gardens. I have bee hives at home, too. They help with pollination.

I do everything with so much love that even difficulties make me learn. I live in the city & bought a farm 3 years ago. But I have neither water nor light there .... Just the land. When I have the money to build a house, I want to move there & be self-sufficient.

The joy, the lifestyle in producing healthy food is the greatest reward. Seeing a seed turn into a fruit fascinates me. I think of plants 24 hours.

I have a personal project called Plantando out there. I produce my own trees using seeds that I buy, change & collect. I sow at home & plant in squares, parks & distribute seedlings. In addition to sending free seeds to anyone who wants to. In one year, I have planted a thousand trees. I have also created a YouTube channel to promote everything that works for me in urban farming.

I tell people to pay more attention to nature. We are all connected. We are nature itself. By destroying the environment, we are destroying ourselves. Nature has everything we need to live a healthy & happy life. Try it, even if it is starting with the cultivation of a small plant in pot. This will be a great beginning & it can change your life.”

12/16/2025

Meet Diane from QLD, Australia 🇦🇺

“I am a curly haired moon worshipper, nature lover, creator with hands, proud English woman living in Australia. I was fortunate to have an older dad, who was born 3 years after the First World War . He was part of the dig for victory generation, where You grew everything you could to survive.

We literally grew up on his allotments. Whilst most kids at my school were learning the new trend of having cabbage patch kids, my sister and I were the cabbage patch kids learning to dry beans for the next season’s crops. I remember seeing big brown onions neatly lined in rows with a flower and I didn’t realize they were so beautiful. He was a seed saver and my mum was the blancher of runner beans and pickler of gluts of onions and beetroots. They grew enough produce to get us through winter and fresh harvests of beautiful organic produce every season.

My husband and I had been in our house for nearly 4 years and it never dawned on me to grow our own food! I do and always have loved gardening. Our neighbour knocked on the door one day and gave us some cucumber plants... and that was it ... I was transported back in time over 30 years being a kid helping up my dad’s allotment. We dug up some of the lawn up put a raised bed in and our own victory garden was born... I was like a woman possessed it all came flooding back. Now we grow enough in our garden for just the two of us. If there’s more we put on our local community page to come and help themselves.

I love to come home from work and go outside and pull something up for dinner, the taste is like nothing else. The feeling you get from connecting with the earth for your mind, body and spirit is what so many of the human population has lost. If you’re thinking of growing your own ... stop thinking about it and go do it , teach your kids. If space is an issue you will be surprised what you can grow in pots.

Grow some food. It’s what our relatives did and our ancestors before them. We are part of the earth , we belong to it and one day we will return to it! Just like my beautiful Dad in 2005!”

12/15/2025

“If you have been feeling consumed with fear for the future of our planet & our people, growing food is such a wonderful way to take action & contribute positively to making a better world. It is something that can be done using little money, the land you inhabit & lots of physical energy. It can be the start of a journey away from consumerism & towards giving back to our Earth. Growing food is addictive, the more you grow the more you want to grow, & the less time you have to feel worried about the future as there are just so many things to get done.”

Leanne

12/15/2025

Meet Cherish from Port Angeles, Washington, United States 🇺🇸

“Growing up where the mountains meet the sea and the rivers run with salmon, it’s hard not to care about this planet’s unique diversity and abundance.

I can’t tell you the exact moment I was inspired to grow food but I can tell you that because I’m such a curious person and I love nature, I’ve had this undying desire to learn how to grow food since I was young.

Honestly, my favorite part is planting the seeds & watching them grow. It awards me with a feeling of harmonious connection to this earth, it provides my family with healthy food, and it cuts down on my carbon footprint and c’mon! The garden clearly serves as a therapist as well! I often refer to the garden as my healer both mentally and physically.

I manage an organic produce department as well as nursery at our local natural food store with an emphasis on sourcing local. This allows me to work directly with the local farmers from crop planning to figuring out ways to drive their sales and make organic produce available to our local communities.

I want people to think of the earth as a dear family member. It is a part of us, we have history together, earth gives us life. I want it to be treated with the utmost care and love and I want people to feel that care and love back from the earth. There are many ways to access this feeling of connection to Mother Earth and one of the greatest ways is to get your hands in the dirt and grow some food!”

12/15/2025

“Start small, listen deeply, and trust the process. Regeneration begins with one seed, a seed of hope, of Love, of healing, and of remembering our bond with the living Earth”.

Full story coming soon of Priyanka

12/15/2025

Meet Vannah Roddy from Black Mountain, North Carolina, United States 🇺🇸

“I am a first generation young farmer who became interested in regenerative agriculture at the age of 17. Farming became something I could do to remove myself from the exploitative industrial economy, provide for myself, and heal the land. Forgoing a traditional education, at 18 I began traveling to different regions across the world. After years of intensive hands on farm experience, I am now applying these skills to my own project, .

Organic farming checks all my boxes: empowerment, justice, environmental health, personal health, connection + community. Food is the medium through which most of us interact with the natural world. To nurture and expand upon that connection, to reach the understanding that everything is interrelated, is to empower folks to take responsibility for every day choices - including how we eat.

‘Ecological Resilience from the Ground Up' means that we farm in harmony with everything around us. We do it from the ground up, by transforming former front yards into gardens, without tillage. By partnering with soil life, with beneficial insects + birds, with our community; because resilience is unattainable alone.

Land access is the #1 barrier to entry for most aspiring farmers. One of the principles that guides both my personal and farming life, is "Use what you've got." A quick look around for unused land, led me to pursue suburban lawns as a network of gardens, to make up my farm. This model has proven to be not a barrier, but an incredible resource and way to inspire + connect with my community!

I decided to pursue farming out of a desire to have more autonomy over my food, and how I impact the environment, but farming has taught me that we are connected to everything. A farm is nothing, without the community that supports it! Connecting people to food, the earth, and to one another, is why I continue to do this work.”

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